PARIS — Standard and Poor’s downgraded Egypt’s rating on Tuesday to BB-, citing weak prospects for public finances and rising risks to macroeconomic stability during the nation’s political transition. The agency lowered its...

WASHINGTON — The United States should delay the sale to Bahrain of any items in a proposed $53 million weapons package that could be used against protesters there, a US senator said Thursday. “I urge the administration to delay the sale of...

Egypt will substantially raise the price of its gas exports to Israel, which have stopped after militants blew up a Sinai desert pipeline, an Egyptian newspaper reported on Tuesday. Oil minister Abdullah Ghurab said there would be “a large...

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta was headed to Cairo from Tel Aviv on Tuesday in an effort to defuse tensions between Egypt andIsrael that have mounted since the end of Hosni Mubarak’s rule. Before flying out after a one-day visit to...

WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that she hoped that Egypt would lift its emergency law before June 2012, the date set by the new military rulers in Cairo. “We have encouraged and continue to encourage the...

CAIRO — It took 18 days of democracy protests to end Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s 30 years in power. It may yet take at least 18 months after his overthrow to see off the generals who succeeded him. The military, in charge since...

CAIRO — A Cairo court sentenced former tourism minister Zuheir Garana on Sunday to three years in prison for illegally issuing operating licences to tourism companies, the state news agency MENA reported. Garana had been previously convicted in...

CAIRO — The satellite channel Al-Jazeera Egypt said on Sunday the authorities had prevented it from broadcasting, after entering its offices and confiscating transmission equipment. Ahmed Zain, the channel’s chief in Cairo, told AFP that...

The trial of Hosni Mubarak resumed on Monday after dozens of the ousted 83-year-old Egyptian president’s supporters and opponents clashed near the Cairo courtroom before his arrival on a stretcher. The session was to hear witness testimony...

From the Atlantic coast to Gulf shores, live images on Arab satellite channels of rebels pouring into Tripoli, trampling on pictures of Gaddafi and chanting “From alley to alley, door to door,” taunting the leader with his own...

CAIRO — Egypt’s military said on Thursday it has dropped charges against prominent blogger Asmaa Mahfouz of insulting the country’s ruling generals after a wave of criticism from rights groups. The military, in a statement on its...

CAIRO — Human Rights Watch accused Egypt’s military on Thursday of escalating a crackdown on critics, after it decided to try an activist for insulting the ruling generals. Asmaa Mahfouz, an activist and blogger involved in the uprising...

The swarm of tunnel activity on the Gaza border raises clouds of fine dust, a sure sign of the boom in underground trafficking since the fall of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak. While the ousted president appeared in court this week on a stretcher,...

CAIRO — The head of the Cairo Criminal Court has vowed a speedy trial for ousted president Hosni Mubarak, the official MENA news agency reported on Sunday. Judge Ahmed Refaat said Mubarak’s trial, which starts on Wednesday, would be aired...